Best Healthy Fat for Your Keto Diet and Gut

I love that healthy fats have come into the spotlight with the popularity of the ketogenic diet. One of my favorite healthy fats is avocado, and I eat them on almost a daily basis. They are so versatile and it turns out they may also be very beneficial for your digestive health. In this blog I’ll breakdown why avocados are good fats, how they help your gut and everything else that makes them an amazing super food.

Avocados = Healthy Fats

There is a lot of confusion around which fats are beneficial for our health. With the popularity of the ketogenic diet, people can go to extremes with the fat that they eat. The key to a healthy keto style diet is the types of fat that you eat. Monounsaturated and polyunsaturated are considered good fats.1 Avocados are a very good source of monosaturated fats. Eating moderate amounts of monounsaturated fats in place of saturated and trans fats can benefit your health.1

When it comes to polyunsaturated fats, there are two different kinds: Omega 6 and Omega 3. They are both considered good fats, but our diets should ideally contain a 1:1 ratio of Omega 6 to Omega 3 fatty acids.2 However, our typical Westernized diets contain a ratio of about 20:1 Omega 6 to Omega 3 which may increase the risk for obesity.2 Avocados contain a very small amount of Omega 3 and no Omega 6. Replacing other fats in your diet with Avocados may help offset your intake of Omega 6 fats and help balance your polyunsaturated fat ratio.

Avocados = Gut Support

So why are avocados beneficial to our gut? Turns out this fatty fruit contains fiber that our gut bacteria can metabolize to create short chain fatty acids.3 This Swedish study on rats showed that short chain fatty acids help protect the mucous lining in our gut by providing fuel for immune cells.

Avocados = Amazing

Not only is it a good fat and helps your gut, avocados also contain:

Carotenoids which may help with memory and brain activity

Antioxidants that help protect your cells

Vitamins and minerals like magnesium, potassium, vitamins A,E,K,B, and C which all help with metabolic functions in the body

Protein with essential amino acids that may support your muscles and tissues

Avocado = Delicious Recipes

It is the perfect food for the current trend of ketogenic diets because its high in fat, low in sugar and provides protein. They are also very versatile to use in a variety of dishes.

Here are a few of my recommendations to enjoy this wonderful fatty fruit:

Try putting them in your smoothies.This makes your smoothies very creamy and rich.If you have a high power blender you can even put the avocado pit in your smoothie. The pit has been shown to possibly have many health benefits including lowering cholesterol, blood pressure, inflammation and more.4

I love putting avocado in my scrambled eggs with other veggies like broccoli, spinach, and sweet peppers.

Try this “pudding” recipe using avocados:

Of course they go great in salads.Try this yummy recipe:

Want a healthy dip…avocados make the perfect dip.Here is a great recipe for a guacamole:

There is so much hype and confusion about what a healthy diet should consists of. When in doubt go for whole foods like avocados and other fruits and vegetables and cut out as much processed foods as you can. Because we certainly aren’t perfect all the time with our diets, including science-based nutritional supplements like EpiCor fermentate to help strengthen your immune and gut health may help fill in the gaps.